One of its several narratives in comparative perspective
The Ṛg Veda contains various accounts of the creation of the universe, including the famous Nāsadīya Sūkta which I have previously discussed. That sets out a rather philosophically sophisticated and speculative idea about a single monistic principle whereby the universe comes into being or brings itself into being. According to another, we might say, more practical account, creation of the universe is described in terms of the raw material it was made from. As Professor Stella Kramrisch explains -
“Other creation myths of the cosmos are by sacrifice or by art. Each of these presupposes a materia prima: the Puruṣa, or cosmic Man, whom the gods sacrifice into creation (10.90), or a sculptor’s clay or metal which Viśvakarman molds or welds together into the shapes of heaven and earth (10.81.2,3), or else wood out of which the gods made heaven and earth (10.81.4).”
However, the main creation myth in the Rig Veda is one where Tvaṣṭṛ and Indra are the responsible parties. At a first stage, the god Tvaṣṭṛ created the sky and earth to the raw material to build himself as a home. As Professor W. Norman Brown explains -
“Earlier than Sky and Earth, that divine pair, was the god Tvaṣṭṛ … When he made sky and earth, his idea seems to have been very immediate and personal: they…
